Iran’s Foreign Ministry announced that upcoming talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will be “technical” and “complicated,” as the nuclear watchdog prepares to visit Tehran for the first time since Iran severed ties with the agency last month. The strained relations follow a 12-day air war in June, during which Israel and the US bombed key Iranian nuclear facilities, killing nearly 1,100 people, including military commanders. Iran’s retaliatory strikes killed 28 in Israel.

Deputy Foreign Ministry spokesperson Kazem Gharibabadi told IRNA that Massimo Aparo, IAEA’s deputy director general, met with Iranian officials from the foreign ministry and atomic energy organization to discuss future cooperation. No details were provided, and the IAEA has not commented on the visit, which excludes access to Iran’s nuclear sites.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei criticized the IAEA for failing to condemn the June attacks, despite Iran’s facilities being under constant monitoring. Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi noted that any cooperation with the IAEA now requires approval from Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, potentially limiting inspectors’ access to Iran’s nuclear program, which has been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels (60% purity, close to 90% weapons-grade).

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The suspension of IAEA cooperation, ordered by President Masoud Pezeshkian on July 3, followed the US and Israeli airstrikes. Iran’s history of limiting inspections as a negotiation tactic raises uncertainty about resuming talks with the West over its nuclear program, which US intelligence and the IAEA say has not been an organized weapons program since 2003.

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